The human hair trade has helped support North Korea’s isolated economy, softening the impact of international sanctions and “providing Pyongyang with vital revenue to pursue its nuclear ambitions,” according to a newspaper report.The Guardian“.
The British newspaper quoted Chinese customs data stating that North Korea’s exports to China last year included 1,680 tons – the equivalent of about 135 double-decker buses – of false eyelashes, beards and wigs, worth about $167 million, according to the newspaper.
These sales, which yielded millions of dollars, helped boost the recovery of exports in the globally isolated country in 2023, as wigs and other hair products constituted nearly 60% of declared goods sent to China, its largest trading partner.
These products are usually made from hair imported from China and assembled at low cost in North Korea, before being returned to Chinese companies who export them around the world.
However, shoppers purchasing wigs and other accessories will find labels telling them the products are made in China, not North Korea.
It is noteworthy that light industries such as cosmetic products are not subject to the sanctions imposed on Pyongyang; Rather, it is one of several ways – legal and illegal – through which the regime has been able to mitigate the impact of international punitive measures.
North Korea is subject to UN sanctions because of its hostile nuclear program.
Nearly two decades have passed since North Korea tested its first nuclear weapon and declared a potential threat to regional and global security.
The move sparked the UN Security Council into action, which issued the first rounds of sanctions in 2006, demanding that North Korea end nuclear testing and ban the export of military supplies to the country.
But years of sanctions have had little impact on North Korea’s pursuit of an effective nuclear program, according to The Guardian.
Its leader, Kim Jong Un, not only continued what his father, Kim Jong Il, who died in 2011, started; Rather, he accelerated his regime’s acquisition of ballistic technology through a series of test launches that theoretically gave North Korea the ability to launch a nuclear strike on the US mainland.
Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, says it was “unreasonable” to expect sanctions alone to end Kim’s nuclear ambitions.
He added, “Sanctions make it difficult for North Korea to obtain technology, components, and money for its weapons programs, but they have not stopped North Korea, because the Kim regime has built a regime that can survive, and even thrive, on the suffering of its people.”
The man pointed out that Pyongyang is adept at evading sanctions through smuggling and electronic piracy, especially since countries such as Russia and China have become increasingly lenient about implementing sanctions.
Although many weapons experts doubt the regime’s ability to integrate a miniaturized warhead into an intercontinental ballistic missile, Kim has faced little opposition in his mission to gain the ability to wreak nuclear devastation on hostile targets.
In 2017, North Korea threatened to launch a long-range missile towards American territory in the Pacific Ocean. In the same year, it launched two long-range missiles over Hokkaido, Japan’s northern largest island.
In 2023, after a hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, North Korea launched at least 30 ballistic missiles, including five intercontinental ballistic missiles.
This ambitious weapons program was not entirely funded by sales of “Made in China” beauty products, but it undoubtedly contributed to funding some of it.
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